Part 8 (1/2)

”'This Old Man,' or whatever it's called. Although you, or they, added some unpleasant lyrics. They slurred . . . falsetto. When I called back, whoever it was answered. I asked what gave and they laughed. Pretty nasty laugh, too. I admit, I can't recall you ever making that kinda sound.”

”It wasn't me. Sober, drunk, whatever. Better believe I'm going to find the b.a.s.t.a.r.d. There's been an incident or three around here. Wanda saw a prowler.”

”All right, all right. If that's true, then maybe you should get the cops involved.”

”Yeah.”

”And Pop-let me explain it to Mom and Lisa before you get on the horn with them. Better yet, don't even bother with Mom. She's pretty much freaked outta her mind.”

”They were called.”

”Yeah. Same night. A real spree.”

Pers.h.i.+ng could only stammer and mumble when his son said he had to run, and then the line was dead. Wanda appeared from nowhere and touched his arm and he nearly swung on her. She looked shocked and her gaze fastened on his fist. He said, ”Jesus, honey, you scared me.”

”I noticed,” she said. She remained stiff when he hugged her. The tension was purely reflexive, or so he hoped. His batting average with her just kept sinking. He couldn't do a much better job of damaging their relations.h.i.+p if he tried.

”I am so, so sorry,” he said, and it was true. He hadn't told her about the trouble at the Broadsword. It was one thing to confide in his male friends, and quite another to reveal the source of his anxiety to a girlfriend, or any vulnerability for that matter. He'd inherited his secretiveness from Pop who in turn had hidden his own fears behind a mask of stoicism; this personality trait was simply a fact of life for Dennard men.

She relented and kissed his cheek. ”You're jumpy. Is everything all right?”

”Sure, sure. I saw a couple of the choir kids flas.h.i.+ng gang signs and thought one of the little jerks was sneaking up on me to go for my wallet.”

Thankfully, she accepted this and held his hand as they walked to her car.

*storm rolled in. He and Wanda sat on her back porch, which commanded a view of the distant Black Hills. Clouds swallowed the mountains. A damp breeze fluttered the c.o.c.ktail napkins under their half-empty Corona bottles, rattled the burnt yellow leaves of the maple tree branches overhead.

”Oh, my,” Wanda said. ”There goes the drought.”

”We better hurry and clear the table.” Pers.h.i.+ng estimated at the rate the front was coming they'd be slammed inside of five minutes. He helped her grab the dishes and table settings. Between trips the breeze stiffened dramatically. Leaves tore from the maple, from trees in neighboring yards, went swirling in small technicolor cyclones. He dashed in with the salad bowl as the vanguard of rain pelted the deck. Lightning flared somewhere over the Waddel Valley; the boom came eight seconds later. The next thunderclap was five seconds. They stood in her window, watching the show until he snapped out his daze and suggested they retreat to the middle of the living room to be safe.

They cuddled on the sofa, half watching the news while the lights flickered. Wind roared around the house and shook its frame as if a freight train slammed along tracks within spitting distance of the window, or a pa.s.senger jet winding its turbines for takeoff. The weather signaled a change in their static routine of the past week. Each knew without saying it that Pers.h.i.+ng would return to the Broadsword in the morning, and their relations.h.i.+p would revert to its more nebulous aspect. Pers.h.i.+ng also understood from her melancholy glance, the measured casualness in her acceptance, that matters between them would remain undefined, that a line had been crossed.

He thought about this in the deepest, blackest hours of night while they lay in bed, she lying gently snoring, her arm draped across his chest. How much easier his life would be if his mock comment to Elgin and Mel proved true-that Wanda was a lunatic; a split personality type who was behind the stalking incidents. G.o.d, I miss you, Ethel. G.o.d, I miss you, Ethel.

”*ouston, we have a problem,” Mel said. He'd brought ham sandwiches and coffee to Pers.h.i.+ng's apartment for an early supper. He was rattled. ”I checked around. Not just you hearing things. Odd, odd stuff going on, man.”

Pers.h.i.+ng didn't want to hear, not after the normalcy of staying with Wanda. And the dreams . . . . ”You don't say.” He really wished Mel wouldn't.

”The cops have been by a couple of times. Turns out other tenants have seen that chick prowling the halls, trying doork.n.o.bs. There's a strange dude, as well-dresses in a robe, like a priest. Betsy Tremblay says the pair knocked on her door one night. The man asked if he could borrow a cup of sugar. Betsy was watching them through the peephole-she says the lady snickered and the man grinned and shushed her by putting his finger over his lips. Scared the h.e.l.l out of Betsy; she told them to scram and called the cops.”

”A cup of sugar,” Pers.h.i.+ng said. He glanced out at the clouds. It was raining.

”Yeah, the old meet-your-cute-neighbor standby. Then I was talking to Fred Nilson; he's p.i.s.sed because somebody below him is talking all night. 'Whispering,' he said. Only problem is, the apartment below his belongs to a guy named Brad c.o.x. c.o.x is overseas. His kids come by every few days to water the plants and feed the guppies. Anyway, no matter how you slice it, something peculiar is going on around here. Doncha feel better?”

”I never thought I was insane.”

Mel chuckled uneasily. ”I was chatting with Gina about the whole thing, and she said she'd heard someone singing while she was in the bath. It came up through the vent. Another time, somebody giggled in the closet while she dressed. She screamed and threw her shoe. This was broad daylight, mind you-no one in there, of course.”

”Why would there be?”

”Right. Gina thought she was imagining things; she didn't want to tell me in case I decided she was a nut. Makes me wonder how many other people are having these . . . experiences and just keeping it to themselves.”

The thought should have given Pers.h.i.+ng comfort, but it didn't. His feelings of dread only intensified. I'm almost seventy, d.a.m.n it. I'm almost seventy, d.a.m.n it. I've lived in the woods, surrounded by grizzlies and wolves; spent I've lived in the woods, surrounded by grizzlies and wolves; spent months hiking the a.s.s end of nowhere with a compa.s.s and an months hiking the a.s.s end of nowhere with a compa.s.s and an entrenchment spade. What the h.e.l.l do I have to be scared of after all entrenchment spade. What the h.e.l.l do I have to be scared of after all that? that? And the little voice in the back of his mind was quick to supply Sly's answer from the nightmare, And the little voice in the back of his mind was quick to supply Sly's answer from the nightmare, Oh, you know. Oh, you know. He said, ”Food for thought. I guess the police will sort through it.” He said, ”Food for thought. I guess the police will sort through it.”

”Sure they will. Maybe if somebody gets their throat slashed, or is beaten to death in a home invasion. Otherwise, I bet they just write us off as a bunch of kooks and go back to staking out the doughnut shop. Looks like a police convention some mornings at Gina's store.”

”Wanda wants me to move in with her. I mean, I think she does.”

”That's a sign. You should get while the getting's good.”

They finished the sandwiches and the beer. Mel left to meet Gina when she got home from work. Pers.h.i.+ng shut the door and slipped the bolt. The story about the strange couple had gotten to him. He needed a stiff drink.

The lights blinked rapidly and failed. The room darkened to a cloudy twilight and the windows became opaque smudges. Sounds of rain and wind dwindled and ceased. ”Gracious, I thought he'd never never leave.” Terry Walker peeked at him from the upper jamb of the bedroom door, attached by unknown means, neck extended with a contortionist's ease so his body remained obscured. His face was very white. He slurred as if he hadn't used his vocal chords in a while, as if he spoke through a mouthful of mush. Then Pers.h.i.+ng saw why. Black yolks of blood spooled from his lips in strands and splattered on the carpet. ”h.e.l.lo, Percy.” leave.” Terry Walker peeked at him from the upper jamb of the bedroom door, attached by unknown means, neck extended with a contortionist's ease so his body remained obscured. His face was very white. He slurred as if he hadn't used his vocal chords in a while, as if he spoke through a mouthful of mush. Then Pers.h.i.+ng saw why. Black yolks of blood spooled from his lips in strands and splattered on the carpet. ”h.e.l.lo, Percy.”

”You're alive,” Pers.h.i.+ng said, amazed at the calmness of his own voice. Meanwhile, his brain churned with full-blown panic, reminding him he was talking to an apparition or an imposter.

”So it seems.” Terry was unchanged from youth-cleanshaven, red hair curling below his ears, and impressive mutton chop sideburns in the style that had been vogue during the '70s.

”It was you in the vents?” Then, as an afterthought, ”How could you terrorize my family?”

”I got bored waiting all week for you to come back. Don't be mad-none of them ever cared for you anyway. Who knows- perhaps we'll get a chance to visit each and every one; make them understand what a special person you are.” Terry grinned an unpleasant, puckered grin and dropped to the floor, limber as an eel. He dressed in a ca.s.sock the color of blackened rust.

”Holy c.r.a.p. You look like you've come from a black ma.s.s.” He chuckled nervously, skating along the fine line of hysteria. There was something wrong with his friend's appearance-his fingers and wrists had too many joints and his neck was slightly overlong by a vertebra or two. This wasn't quite the Terry Walker he knew, and yet, to some degree it was, was, and thus intensified Pers.h.i.+ng's fear, his sense of utter dislocation from reality. ”Why and thus intensified Pers.h.i.+ng's fear, his sense of utter dislocation from reality. ”Why are are you here? Why have you come back?” he said, and regretted it when Terry's smile bloomed with Satanic joy. you here? Why have you come back?” he said, and regretted it when Terry's smile bloomed with Satanic joy.

”Surveying.”

”Surveying?” Pers.h.i.+ng felt a new appreciation for the depths of meaning in that word, the inherent coldness. Surveying preceded the destruction of one order to make way for another, stronger, more adaptable order.

”What else would I do? A man's got to have a niche in the universe.”

”Who are you working for?” Oh Lord, let it be the FBI, Homeland Security, anybody. Oh Lord, let it be the FBI, Homeland Security, anybody. Still trying for levity, he said, ”Fairly sure I paid my taxes, and I don't subscribe to Still trying for levity, he said, ”Fairly sure I paid my taxes, and I don't subscribe to American American Jihadist. Jihadist. You're not here to s.h.i.+p me to Guantanamo, or wherever, are you? Trust me, I don't know jack squat about anything.” You're not here to s.h.i.+p me to Guantanamo, or wherever, are you? Trust me, I don't know jack squat about anything.”

”There's a migration in progress. A diaspora, if you will. It's been going on . . . well, when numbers grow to a certain proportion, they lose relevance. We creep like mold.” Terry's grin showed that the inside of his mouth was composed of blackened ridges, and indeed toothless. His tongue pulsed; a sundew expanding and contracting in its puddle of gore. ”Don't worry, though, Earthman. We come in peace.” He laughed and his timbre ascended to the sickly-sweet tones of a demented child. ”Besides, we're happy to live in the cracks; your sun is too bright for now. Maybe after it burns down a bit . . . ”

The bathroom door creaked open and the woman in the black dress emerged. She said, ”Hullo there, love. I'm Gloria. A pleasure to meet you.” Her flesh glowed like milk in a gla.s.s, like the sugar bowl in his visions. To Terry, she said, ”He's older than I thought.”

”But younger than he appears.” Terry studied Pers.h.i.+ng, his eyes inscrutable. ”City life hasn't softened you, has it, pal?” He nodded at the woman. ”I'm going to take him. It's my turn to choose.”

”Okay, dear.” The woman leaned her hip against the counter. She appeared exquisitely bored. ”At least there'll be screaming.”

”Isn't there always?”